The AWP Conference: past & present

The first one I attended was in New Orleans in 2002. Since then the AWP conference has become a welcome opportunity to catch up with writer friends I only see once or twice a year. Truth be told, the panels and readings are almost beside the point. For those of us invested in fostering community among Chicano/a and Latino/a writers, the conference has become a touchstone.

Having said that, in 2002 I had the pleasure of participating on my first panel, moderated by Francisco X. Alarcón, and joined by Rane Arroyo, Rigoberto González and Eduardo C. Corral. But the night before was the highlight: a whole crew of us pushing three or four tables together at an eatery in the French Quarter, enjoying food, drink, and fellowship.

A couple of years later, Momotombo Press made its debut at the AWP bookfair in Chicago. It was a modest set-up to be sure, but the table became a sort of informal gathering place for a number of the Latino/a writers present that year, including Steven Cordova, whose chapbook Slow Disolve had recently launched Momotombo Press' Latino-focused mission. It was at that table that I met for the first time, for example, Diana Marie Delgado; and it was there that I met, briefly, Kevin A. González for the first and only time.

My room at the Palmer House that year, with the collabortion of Rigoberto González, María Meléndez, and Richard Yanez, among others, was the setting of a Chicano/Latino writers reception, with food catered from a local Mexican restaurant. It took place immediately after María Meléndez's panel that featured Chicanas Lisa D. Chávez, Sheryl Luna, Emmy Pérez, and Carolina Monsivais. Among the people I recall being in the room, among many, were Javier Huerta and Gina Franco, who was gifting her book, The Keepsake Storm (University of Arizona Press). Pictures were taken, including ones that had people piled onto one of the beds, mugging for the camera. Those of us who were present had the feeling that something special was taking place. It certainly felt that way. That reception was, in many ways, the pre-cursor of what have become the very successful Con Tinta celebrations, the first taking place in Austin, and the second last year in Atlanta--with the AWP Conference as the backdrop.

The next edition is set to start next week in New York City. In addition to the Momotombo Press/Letras Latinas table, there will be a table for PALABRA, the new literary journal I've mentioned here on more than one occasion, as well as tables for Con Tinta, the ACENTOS Foundation, and TAMEME. In short, the Chicano/Latino presence at AWP has become a solid fixture.

One of the principals who has always been at the forefront of disseminating useful Chicano/Latino-related information about the conference has been Richard Yanez. Below are the fruits of his labor: a listing of the panels and readings that will have Latino/a participation. Also announced are the two main off-site Latino functions:


WEDNESDAY, January 30th, 7:00 p.m.

A Reception Hosted by The City University of New York. CUNY welcomes the 2008 AWP conference, and all its attendees, to New York City. Murray Hill Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

THURSDAY, January 31st , 9:00-10:15 a.m.

Next Stop, Everywhere: The UWM-Poetry Foundation Poetry Film Project. (Liam Callanan, Anne Halsey, Brad Lichtenstein, Ellen Elder, Maurice Kilwein-Guevara) This panel will discuss and debut the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Poetry Foundation's joint project to create and broadcast short, innovatively produced films, each featuring a single poem. These films will initially be screened on specially equipped transit systems nationwide, from Los Angeles to Orlando. What is the most effective way to bring a poem to the screen? How do poets and filmmakers collaborate to attract the attention of an audience in transit? Stop by, tune in. Morgan Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

THURSDAY, January 31st , 12:00-1:15 p.m.

Translating Five Hundred Years of Latin American Poetry. (Mark Lokensgard, Cecilia Vicuña, Rosa Alcalá, Molly Weigel) In 2008, Oxford University Press will publish its 500 Years of Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology. One of the book's editors and several of its translators give bilingual readings of selected poems and then discuss the poems and their translations. They address issues of craft, mechanics, musicality, and differing literary traditions, among others, that translators must consider in order to make a poem that is both meaningful and enjoyable in English. Bryant Ste Hilton, 2nd Floor.

The Other Latino/a: Defining a New American Landscape. (Blas Falconer, Lisa D. Chávez, Juan J. Morales, Helena Mesa) New York, Miami, Chicago, LA, the Southwest--these are what many consider to be the typical geographies of Latino/a poets. Writers often work within a literary tradition defined by place and community, but how do Latino poets reared outside this context contribute to Latino poetry? Members of our panel will consider this question as we examine aesthetics and themes, juxtaposing our own work and that of other Latino/as with poems well established in the Latino cannon. Gibson Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

THURSDAY, January 31st , 3:00-4:15 p.m.

Writing Violence. (Maurice Kilwein-Guevara, George Makana Clark, Neil Connelly, Juan Felipe Herrera, Cristina Rodriguez Cabral, Adam Johnson) At a time of war and in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, this panel explores the representations of violence across cultures and genres. Our aim is to discuss a number of related issues, including the ethics inherent in depicting violent images, the various forms that violence takes, the impact that violence has on readers, and the historical/cultural contexts in which violence occurs. Sutton South Hilton, 2nd Floor.

≈ Con Tinta Celebration ≈
Mojitos' Bar & Grill
(227 East 116 Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
Thursday, January 31st
6:00 -9:00 p.m.
Free - Open Buffet - Cash Bar - Public is Invited

FRIDAY, February 1st, 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Hablando con Acentos: Building a Home for Latino and Latina Poets in the Bronx and Beyond. (Richard Villar, Raina Leon, John Rodriguez, Sam Vargas, Aracelis Girmay) In March 2003, two Latino poets founded a reading series and open mic in the South Bronx called Acentos. In much the same mold as the early Nuyorican movement, the series provides a safe haven for writers of Latino/a descent to create and present work in both English and Spanish. Poets from the Acentos community document the history and importance of the series, the vital group of writers and teachers behind it, and its current expansion into a national Latino/a writers's forum and workshop. Clinton Suite, Hilton, 2nd Floor.

"Any Number of Old Ladies": Writers Revealing Family. (Joy Castro, Bich Minh Nguyen, Lorraine Lopez, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Susan Ito) Drawing on Faulkner's line about a real writer's being willing to rob his mother for good work ("the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies"), our panel investigates the impact that writing about family members has had upon writers's relationships with their own. Where and how do we draw boundaries? When and why have we chosen to write about family--and when have we refrained? How have we negotiated ethical dilemmas? What fallout and benefits have we experienced as a result? Mercury Ballroom Hilton, 3rd Floor.

FRIDAY, February 1st, 1:30-2:45 p.m.

Writers at Rutgers-Newark. (Rigoberto González, Rachel Hadas, Alice Dark, Dennis Nurkse, James Goodman, Lewis Porter) This is the inaugural year of the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark University-- a cross genre and interdisciplinary program. Come hear readings by our faculty in fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and even a performance of jazz piano. Morgan Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

Canta Pueblo: Building and Serving Audiences in Latino Communities.
(Richard Yañez, Francisco Aragón, Amit Ghosh, Irasema González, Elena Minor)
The proliferation of Latino literature reflects the broadening of audiences within its communities and beyond. Panelists represent groups actively expanding the Latino literary landscape. Committed to celebrating diverse voices and a collective vision, they share a responsibility of service to their proud community. These writer activists will detail how they foster dialogue and promote expression through bilingual readings, book discussions, free writing workshops, and publication of new work.
Conference Room E, Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center.

FRIDAY, February 1st, 3:00-4:15 p.m.

The Crisis in Literary Criticism. (Jane Ciabattari, Jabari Asim, John Freeman, Rigoberto González, Lizzie Skurnick, Elizabeth Taylor) Literary publications, often the only outlet for reviews of small-press books, are disappearing from library shelves, replaced by databases. Newspapers are cutting book pages, eliminating stand-alone book sections and book editors, and shifting some book coverage online. The National Book Critics Circle board is sponsoring a nationwide campaign to support book criticism, and hosting an ongoing discussion on the NBCC board blog, Critical Mass. Where is literary criticism headed? How do we preserve book culture as the outlets for free-ranging critical commentary grow more limited? What is the best way to present book coverage online? Come hear the latest and consider the future. Conference Room E Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center.


FRIDAY, February 1st, 7 PM
Rutgers Newark MFA in Creative Writing Reception. Come celebrate the Rutgers-Newark MFA program, selected as 1 of 5 up and coming programs in the nation by The Atlantic. Join us for a drink, meet our faculty. All are welcome. Sutton South Hilton, 2nd Floor.

ACENTOS: A Gathering and Celebration of Latino & Latina Poets
The School of Social Work @ Hunter College
129 E. 79th Street (Corner of 79th St. and Lexington Ave.)
Friday, February 1st @ 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public
Co-sponsored by El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College

SATURDAY, February 2nd, 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Split This Rock: Poems of Provocation & Witness. (Sarah Browning, Martín Espada, E. Ethelbert Miller, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker) Split This Rock Poetry Festival, to be held March 20-23 in the nation's capital, will bring together poets of national prominence and local poetry communities to celebrate poetry as an agent for social change. Transformation of our political and social climate cannot occur without art that speaks from the conscience, names the unnamable, and imagines alternatives to a world based on conflict and fear. Four of the festival's featured poets read work in the spirit of Split This Rock. Beekman & Sutton North Hilton, 2nd Floor.

The Price of the Ticket: Writers of Color & Writing Programs. (David Mura, Tim Seibles, Patricia Smith, Gina Franco, Natalie Diaz, Marilyn Chin) Many writers of color have found writing programs to be alienating and inadequate to their needs as writers. Often we encounter a refusal to recognize our cultural and literary traditions and the communities that have formed us. To explore how programs might become more open to writers of color, this panel will address such issues as aesthetics and the canon, multicultural pedagogy, and personnel and institutional changes (for example, organizations like Cave Canem, VONA, Kundiman, Macando). Clinton Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

SATURDAY, February 2nd, 12:00-1:15 p.m.

U.S. Latino Writers Speak Out: A Literary Response to the Immigration Crisis. (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Denise Chávez, Dagoberto Gilb, Luis Urrea, Ruben Martínez) We are poets, novelists, and journalists who feel compelled to unite in a public forum to read from our work that addresses an issue that is tearing this country apart. Our literature, our books, our novels, our journalism, our poetry, our urge to write has sprung from the fact that we belong to an immigrant community in struggle. With our words, we wish to bridge the chasm between the literature we write, the writing community of which we are a part, and the country that is our home. Empire Ballroom Sheraton, 2nd Floor.


SATURDAY, February 2nd, 12:00-1:15 p.m.

No Humor in Heaven, but Hell Can Be Hilarious: Risks and Rewards in Writing Humor. (Lorraine Lopez, Heather Sellers, Crystal Wilkinson, Julia Watts, Mary Clyde, Lynn Pruett) "The secret source of humor," Mark Twain stipulated, "is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in Heaven." Thus, humor erupts with force and frequency from the margins of culture, class, and sexual orientation, and despite Christopher Hitchen's declaration that females lack wit, from women. Panelists examine how humor forges human connections and how it can also colonize literature, prompting critical reaction and hype that shunt writing back into the margins by ignoring its "secret source." Mercury Ballroom Hilton, 3rd Floor.

SATURDAY, February 2nd, 1:30-2:45p.m.

Voicing Needs & Creative Survival: Writing in Multilingual, Community Spaces. (Emmy Pérez, Michelle Otero, Sehba Sarwar, Carolina Monsiváis, Minerva Laveaga, Lecroy Rhyanes) Writers of color teaching community workshops will discuss pedagogical strategies and experiences working with incarcerated youth and adults, survivors of domestic violence, survivors of sexual assault, migrant farm workers and immigrant youth. What are some effective methods for teaching participants with a range of educational and life experiences in multilingual settings? Writing for social action comes full circle when we publicly distribute work via performance, radio, recordings and print. Bryant Suite Hilton, 2nd Floor.

Poets in the Hood. (Richard Michelson, Martín Espada, E. Ethelbert Miller) Neighborhoods in Brooklyn and The Bronx were, and still are ethnic and racial enclaves. E. Ethelbert Miller, a black poet, was born in 1950 in the South Bronx. Richard Michelson, a Jewish poet was born 1953 in East New York, Brooklyn, and Martin Espada, a Hispanic poet was born in 1957, just a few blocks from Michelson. All three poets will talk about the racial and political overtones of their poetry, and how the neighborhoods of their birth have affected their outlook and their voice. Mercury Ballroom Hilton, 3rd Floor

SATURDAY, February 2nd, 3:00-4:15 p.m.

Dreaming the End of War: One Poem, Many Voices. (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, C.D. Wright, Matthew Shenoda, Emily Warn, Richard Jones, Cyrus Cassells) In Dreaming the End of War, poet Benjamin Sáenz writes to overcome the very idea of war. "I don't believe a flag is important enough to kiss-or even burn. Some men would hate me enough to kill me if they read these words." Rooted in an artist's impulse to speak, to say enough, six poets give voice to the entirety of this gripping suite that confronts the major issues of our day: immigration, borderlands, poverty, and humanity's addiction to war. Metropolitan East Sheraton, 2nd Floor.

SATURDAY, February 2nd, 4:30-6:15 p.m.

Avant-Garde Latino/a Poetry. (Gabriel Gomez, Roberto Tejada, Valerie Martinez, Monica De La Torre, María Meléndez, Francisco Aragón) The reality of a U.S. Latino/a Avant-Garde is virtually non-existent in contemporary literary discourse about "Latino/a Art" as well as across the literary spectrum. The objective of this panel, made up of Latino/a poets, critics, and publishers, is to interrogate the very terms "Avant-Garde" and "Latino/a experience" as intersecting locations of poetic practice so as to bring forth work that bears witness to our varying aesthetics as artists and thinkers. Conference Room D Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center.

*


If anyone reading this will be at the conference this coming week, come by table #400 and say hello and persuse (and purchase) past and current Momotombo Press titles. OCHO # 15, featuring the work of 15 Latino and Latina poets will also be available. If you're not registered, the bookfair will be open to the public on Saturday.

Group Review of OCHO #15

The Montserrat Review has posted a review of the recent issue of OCHO, featuring 15 Latino and Latina poets:

"A POWERFUL GATHERING OF POETS IN OCHO #15:
Eight poets/teachers/critics respond in writing to the magazine OCHO # 15, presenting a rich composite review. Anne Caston, Merrill Leffler, Grace Cavalieri, Mary F. Morris, Ed Zahnizer, Whitney Smith, Laura Orem, Hope Maxwell-Synder"

You can read the review here. Please pass it around to anyone who may be interested in having a look.

Many thanks to Grace Cavalieri for serving, I believe, as "managing editor" of this piece. An Amazon search for "Ocho 15" will take you to the page where you can purchase it. I'll have some copies on hand in New York City next week: come by the Letras Latinas table (#400) at the AWP bookfair and say hello.

PALABRA PURA Year 3: launched

desde San Antonio

We couldn't have asked for a better way to launch this our third season.

The evening in Chicago last night began with Palabra Pura's signature stamp: our pre-reading dinner. In addition, of course, to our guests of honor, ariel robello (who flew in from Tampa) and Juan Manuel Sánchez (who's completing his MFA from the University of Illinois), also present was Eric Murphy Selinger, poetry critic and professor at DePaul who is about to publish a major essay in Parnassus: Poetry in Review, titled, "Gringo with Baedeker, Cortez in Kevlar"--a piece, according to Parnassus' website "on Latino and Latina poetry." We missed Lisa Alvarado, who couldn't make it, but were joined by the rest of the Palabra Pura crew, Ellen Wadey, Mike Puican, and Mary Hawley, as well as Juan's wife, whose name, I lament, is escaping me.

Without doing proper justice to the reading, I will say that I especially enjoyed how Sánchez's and robello's reading styles were a fruitful study in contrasts, with Sánchez's deliveries more understated but intense---sculpted lines and images that commanded your attention. His riff on Wallace Stevens (13 ways of looking at coyote) was a highlight for me. robello, for her part, opened her set singing a piece that used the melody of "La Bamba" but inserting content that evoked what's been happening to las mujeres de juárez. She also performed one of her pieces entirely in Spanish, expressing appreciation for a reading series were Spanish is not only welcomed, but encouraged.

What I'm hoping (since I likely won't be able to attend all of the Palabra Pura readings this season) is commissioning pieces that I can post here. So, Chicagoans, let me know if you'd like to cut your teeth on writing about any of these readings for this blog. Attendence was very good, and I was happy to see Paul Martínez Pompa and Kristin Dykstra, poet, translator and editor of Mandorla, who graciously drove up from Normal, IL.

In the meantime, I'd like to share what PALABRA PURA 2008 looks like, thus far: there are still a few local poets we need to confirm:

February 20
Tim Z. Hernández
Stephanie Gentry-Fernández

March 19
Aracelis Girmay
Olga Ulloa

April 16
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Rigoberto González
(in partnership with the Poetry Foundation)

May 21
Adrian Castro
local poet TBA

June 18
Naomi Ayala
Diana Pando

July 15
Emanual Xavier
Irasema González

September 17
Tomás Riley
local poet TBA

October 15
Frances Treviño
local poet TBA

November 12
Juan J. Morales
local poet TBA

Founding Editor & Publisher: elena minor

A Magazine

of Chicano

& Latino

Literary Art

www.palabralitmag.com

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release January 14, 2008
Contact: elena minor 1. 800. 282. 5608 palabralit@earthlink.net


PALABRA ISSUE 3 RELEASED

Just released and ready for the reading, the new issue of PALABRA A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art is filled with a diverse assortment of fiction, poetry and drama that is wistful, intense, contemplative, searing, fresh-eyed, muscular, surprising and funny.

The latest issue (No. 3) features new poetry by

Margarita Engle
Carolina Monsiváis
María Luis Arroyo
Alfar
Damacio García
Marielena O. Gómez

Also included are a novel excerpt by Richard Yañez,
a new play by Caridad Svich
and short fiction from Marisela Norte, Louis Reyna, Nick Padron and Daniel Chacón.

With the release of its third issue, PALABRA continues its quest to showcase an eclectic array of new and established Chicano and Latino literary voices speaking in a wide range of styles—writing as distinct and varied as the experiences that created them.

PALABRA is available through its website: www.palabralitmag.com and at:

Imix Bookstore - Los Angeles, CA - www.imixbooks.com
Tianguis - Chicago, IL - www.tianguis.biz
Trópico de Nopal Gallery - Los Angeles, CA www.tropicodenopal.com
REDCAT - Los Angeles, CA - www.redcat.org

PALABRA will have a table at the book fair at AWP/NYC:
come by and say hello and get your copies of 1 2 & 3.

*
I've said it before, I'll say it again: elena minor is the real deal. Both in correspondence, and in person, her passion, insight and wit---where Chican@/Latin@ letters are concerned---are easily palpable.

What follows is an interview conducted through e-mail correspondence during the months of November and December of 2006, shortly after PALABRA was born. I post again for those who may have missed it.

FA: Francisco Aragón
em: elena minor

FA: Thank you, Elena, for agreeing to this e-interview. Naturally, part of this interview will be about your recently inaugurated PALABRA. But before I get to that, I'd like readers to know something about you. Could you tell us about your literary trajectory? How long have you been writing? What genre(s)? Publication history?

em: Francisco, thank you for the opportunity to put the word out about Palabra (no pun intended). It's an undertaking that I've had in mind for several years and which finally has come to fruition. But first, let me respond to your questions about how I got to writing. I actually started writing in high school but published only three times before I finally decided to get down to the matter of writing seriously—about ten or so years ago. Mostly I write poetry, short fiction, drama (even screenplays when I need a break or just need to write myself out of a block). The genre I go with for any given piece simply depends on how an idea or notion comes to me. Sometimes it opens like a play, other times it swirls in like a story or beats out like a poem. Sometimes it feels like a combination of two or all three. That's when the fun begins and I go with whatever it feels like just to see what happens. My work has been published both online and in print in Poetry Midwest, Segue, Prism Review, Vox, BorderSenses, The Big Ugly Review, edifice WRECKED, Quercus Review, 26, Banyan Review and Facets. I also have work forthcoming in the first print issue of Diner. And I've even won a few awards in all three genres, including the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize (drama).

FA: A couple of follow-up questions/themes occur to me. You say you began writing seriously ten years ago. Can you comment on what role your MFA training at Antioch College had on your development? As you may or may not be aware, the "MFA debate" is especially lively right now in the wake of John Barr’s article in Poetry magazine, where he paints a rather unflattering portrait of those writers who pursue an MFA. The President of the AWP responded with a fairly passionate defense on behalf of the variety of MFA students that exist and how it’s unfair to paint them all with the same brushs. How do you see yourself in this debate as someone who pursued a low-residency degree? And my second question has to do with the fact that you cultivate more than one genre. Was that a conscious decision on your part? Do you feel especially close to one genre with the other two being secondary? Please comment.

em: At Antioch I found the freedom to explore and experiment with language and meaning rather than simply trying to hone conventional narrative skills. I found that I really enjoyed doing that. I still do. It suits my temperament. I'm grateful that no one tried to steer me into formulas. Although I tend to agree with John Barr's comments, I also think there will always exist in MFA programs those few souls who can create nothing but new and authentic language. I greatly enjoy reading a well-told story or a well-crafted poem and some of my favorite writers do just that, but as a writer I bore easily and get greater satisfaction from taking literary risks—even when I fail. The great benefit of doing a low residency program is that although you have an online community with which you communicate daily (or at least weekly), the "group think" dynamic of workshop is reduced to a minimum, such that you as a writer have more freedom to go where your writing will take you—yet you can still get feedback. But I also came to an MFA program when I already had a fair sense of confidence in my writing and what I wanted from an MFA program, so I was able to evaluate the feedback I received and use what made sense. I think people who don't have a sense of their writing will struggle in a low residency program.

As for why I write in more than one genre, I think it has more to do with my boredom quotient, which has a low threshold. Repetition bores me, but equally important, I find that switching genres once in a while helps me discover something new, and those discoveries strengthen my work overall—keep it from getting stale. I don't generally set out to write a poem or a short story. Rather, ideas and notions seem to self-select their own form. For the most part they come to me already cast as poems or short stories or plays, or some variation thereof. And I'm always closest to the genre in which I'm writing, and while I'm in it feel that it's my strongest and preferred modality. I don't genre jump on a daily or even weekly basis, though. I generally will go months in one or another. Lately I've begun a series of pieces that combine elements of several genres—hybrids, if you will. I don't even know how to classify them—and often people don't know how to read them.

FA: Apologies Elena, for the delay in getting the next question to you. My job here can be overwhelming sometimes. I currently, believe it or not, increasingly find myself filling out book orders for Momotombo Press. In other words, I’m being contacted by both libraries and university bookstores, who are purchasing copies of Momotombo Press because they are being adopted in classrooms. For example, Paul Martínez Pompa’s Pepper Spray is being taught next semester at Ohio State University and University of Illinois at Urbana. And I’m anticipating orders from New Mexico State University and University of Texas Pan American. I mention all this as a way of introducing my next question: As a working writer who does not hold an academic teaching job, and who has now taken on the task of editing a literary journal, how do you fit in your own writing? How do you juggle these activities?

em: You mean not everyone has three jobs? (That's meant to be a joke.) It's mostly a matter of organization and will power. I don't believe in waiting for the muse to perch on my shoulder or divine inspiration to shower down on me. I learned early on as a writer to be disciplined about writing: do it every day, at the same time, and in the same place—even if all I manage to crank out is a few lines or one paragraph or edit one word or punctuation mark. Still, for those months that Palabra is in actual production, my own writing slows to a trickle. And although I don't hold an academic teaching appointment, I do work in higher ed and am lucky enough to have a supportive work environment—one that allows me some flexibility, so I manage to get enough writing time in. I also teach creative writing to high school students once a week. Now there's a "higher ed" experience. More like professional development, as it were. Keeps me honest as a writer—keeps me from getting complacent and stale.

There is a tradeoff, though. Non-literary social activities tend to take a back seat. That's actually a dangerous place to be because your world tends to grow smaller when, as a writer and as a person, it should always be getting larger. Time spent doing one thing means time not spent doing something else. Still and all, "we pays our money and takes our chances". I took on Palabra knowing it would take a lot of work and I'm glad I'm doing it. I especially enjoy it when someone sends work that just resonates in my gut. And I love it when I find fresh new writers or work that is literarily challenging. Makes it all so worth the effort. But I will admit I'm anxious to focus on my own work again. I've had words and characters and images buzzing around in my head waiting for me to let them out so they can dance. I think it's a mambo this time.

FA: Let’s talk about the genesis of Palabra. One of the things I found so refreshing about our initial correspondence was that you seemed to want to seek out writing that pushed the envelope of "latinidad." This was welcome because there was a journal out of Brooklyn a few years ago (which I think folded shortly after 9/11) which, on the one hand, called itself, The US Latino Review, and then on the other stated quite clearly that it wanted to privilege writers who wrote about specific issues: economic, political, and social. My feeling was: if you want to publish specific kinds of writing, fine; but I found it problematic that such a limited editorial endeavor called itself something as broad and multi-faceted as The US Latino Review. Whereas your project seems to want to go in the opposite direction. Could you share with readers the particular context which spurred you to take on Palabra?

em: There is really no single reason why I decided to launch Palabra. Rather, it's a series of interconnected observations coupled with my own sense of responsibility and service to my community. As I looked around the U. S. literary landscape, I found that although there are hundreds of literary journals and webzines and dozens of small presses, only a handful of them regularly publish work by Chicanos and Latinos and, more often than not, they publish writers whose literary reputations are already established. Generally, editors and readers have had implanted in their [sub]consciousness an idea of what Chicano and Latino literature should look like and what it should say, if they're even familiar with it to begin with. If work submitted doesn't conform to those notions, it gets rejected—sometimes even if it's written by established writers. (Some journals even go so far as to state that they will accept work only in English.) Equally important, among those hundreds of literary journals, there exist few Chicano & Latino publications and, among those, I found none dedicated to developing new forms and streams to add to the canon of Chicano & Latino literature.

I also think that sometimes we're our own worst enemy in that regard. We self-censor our own work in order to get it to fit an established paradigm. It becomes a vicious circle—we use the same patterns over and over and the work as a whole becomes static, stale. My idea was to create a venue or forum, if you will, in which Chicanos and Latinos could explore and experiment with literature—try new stuff, go in new directions—and get that work published, even if it wasn't polished. I didn't want one of those [academic] literary journals that prize craft over content. I wanted something that embodied heart and risk and in which polished work would sit next to fifth draft work. I wanted a journal that was eclectic on several levels, even at the risk of being criticized for being "uneven" or "unfocused." Being seemingly uneven or unfocused gives it room to grow—gives it somewhere to go, other than down. And perfection has always bored me. Think about it: what do you do and where do you go after perfection?

But also, there was nothing more than the basic observation that there simply aren't enough Chicano and Latino literary journals out there, and there should be. Not only should there be more, but they should each reflect a different editorial bent. There's room for all—we don't have to fit all our huevos into one canasta (yes, that's a play on words). I'm just trying to make the Palabra basket a very large one, literarily speaking, of course.

FA: Your comment about the work not necessarily having to be "polished" and how the journal can house works that are at different stages of completion is quite refreshing. It goes against the idea that a poem should only be published when it is absolutely finished and ready—whatever that means. It reminds me of a comment Victor Hernández Cruz once made during an interview I conducted with him nearly twenty years ago! I was asking him about revision, and he frankly admitted that he didn’t really do that much. I think he said that a poem of his might go through three or four drafts tops. Anyway, the comment by Victor was something like, "This isn't eye surgery…if I don’t get the poem right this time, I'll try again, and hopefully do better the next time." Elena, now that the first issue of the magazine is out, can you talk a bit about the future of Palabra: how many issues do you hope to put out per year? And what are your plans, if any, for a website? And finally, have you thought about the life-span of Palabra? How many issues do you want to edit?

em: My plans are to publish Palabra twice a year – spring and fall (or as close to that as I can get). And there is a website in development. Getting it up and operational has proved to be more problematic than getting out the first issue. As for how long it will run? Generally speaking, literary magazines don't have long life spans, especially if they're not institutionalized at a college or university. I'm not sure for how long I intend it to run—probably until it no longer serves its purpose. Hopefully it will have a life after me. My thinking is to remain as its editor until its "aesthetic" has been established and people know what to expect—or not—from Palabra. I hope to grow it enough to be able to bring in associate editors and others who are interested in publishing a literary magazine—use Palabra as a training ground in that regard. Even further into the future, though, I'd like to pass Palabra onto someone or ones who can be true to its spirit but give it their own stamp. Then I'll move on to something else—possibly into publishing chapbooks or full length books—maybe even a line of ancillary literary publications. ¿Quién sabe? It depends, to a degree, on what comes with the future.

To order a copy of PALABRA and/or learn more, write to elena at: palabralit@earthlink.net

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elena minor is the founding editor of Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art. Her poetry, fiction and commentary have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry Midwest, Diner, 26, Vox, Segue, Prism Review, BorderSenses, The Big Ugly Review, Quercus Review, edifice WRECKED, Banyan Review, Facets, Chicanovista and Frontera. She is a past first prize recipient of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize (drama) from UC Irivine and has, as well, won awards for her fiction and her poetry. She was commissioned to write a play by the Mark Taper Forum’s Other Voices Project. She has also placed as a finalist in several national fiction competitions. Most recently, she was awarded second place in poetry in the Sacramento Public Library’s Focus on Writers contest.

She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and became an activist in college. She helped organize Chicano student organizations and advocated to establish ethnic studies programs and increase the number of minority students in college. After college that activism expanded into full-blown community organization during the Chicano Movement of the 60s and 70s. Most of her advocacy work concerned education, police brutality, health care, civil rights and voter registration and Chicana/Latina issues and empowerment. It was during those years that her writing was first published—a short and passionate commentary titled “The Chicana Experience.” Her experiences as an activist not only helped shape her values about service to the community but also the course of her life. They led her into urban planning, local government, higher education and, lastly, to arts administration and writing, which she has been doing for the last fifteen years. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles.

Introducing OCHO #15

“…Catching Up With the Joneses”

The full headline on the front page of The New York Times is from November 17, 2007 and reads: In U.S. Name Count, Garcias are Catching Up With the Joneses. The article, early on, reveals: The number of Hispanics living in the United States grew by 58 percent in the 1990s to nearly 13 percent of the total population, and cracking the list of top 10 names suggests just how pervasively Latino migration has permeated everyday American culture.

I would include American poetry in that equation. Readers, however, of what some may term “top tier” publications would not come to that conclusion. Thankfully, there is the world of smaller literary magazines, and the world of online publishing. Journals like Crab Orchard Review in print, or MiPoesías on the web, are but two examples of literary projects that approach their task with diligence when it comes to taking a more accurate pulse of the poetry being written. The necessary challenge for any editor is keeping eyes and ears open for the new—including, I would argue, the changing face of a nation.

On the heels of editing The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, I wanted to seek out voices beyond this University of Arizona Press anthology, as well as poets who hadn’t published with Momotombo Press, nor those slated to appear in Canto Cosas, the poetry book series I’m editing for Bilingual Press. In short, I wanted to move beyond pre-established comfort zones, but at the same time test my hypothesis that there’s overlooked terrain where new Latino poetry is concerned, even among those of us with a stated interest in Latino literature.

I decided, therefore, that I’d try and gather poets without a book. In Ian Gibson’s two-volume biography of Federico García Lorca, which I read twenty years ago when I’d just moved to Spain, one of the scenarios that stayed with me is that poetry was shared mostly in manuscript form. If there were journal editors among those private readers, poems might be solicited and so would appear in print. By the time Libro de poemas—Lorca’s “first book”—was published, readers were aware of the work because it had been circulating for years in small journals and in manuscript, often times in correspondence. One of the monuments of 20th century poetry, Poeta en Nueva York, did not become a book in Lorca’s lifetime. This more intimate way of engaging with the art has always intrigued me, though in no way should be taken as a position against more intentionally public modes of dissemination. And yet I do get a sense that one's "success" as an artist is often tied to such markers as number and "type" of publication. More and more, I find myself attracted to Jack Spicer's model, which echoed Lorca's, and whose first book, it turns out, was titled After Lorca.

All this might be my way of saying that I am not making conventional predictions about the fifteen poets presented here. I know that some have manuscripts that may very well become fine books one day. Some already have chapbooks. Some have published in journals, including Poetry magazine. But the pleasure I derived from these poems as I read and chose them would not diminish one iota if some of their authors do not go on to publish a prize-winning book(s) nor, for that matter, appear in the pages of Ploughshares.

In reflecting upon what kind of "introduction" I would write, I decided against repeating the gesture I made in The Wind Shifts, where I attempted to paint a poetic group portrait, citing lines of verse throughout. Rather, I would like the poems to speak for themselves. The biographical sketches, I think, more than stand on their own.

And so consider, dear reader, this issue of OCHO a “private letter” to you: one that offers a my particular snapshot—in time—of one thread in a thicker strand of American poetry that continues largely under-explored and under-appreciated.

Francisco Aragón
18 November 2007
Washington, D.C.

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Such was the Intro I keyed a weeks ago for MiPoesías Magazine Print Companion. I reproduce it hear hoping readers might venture to see what the fuss is all about, and get OCHO #15 here. And who are the poets in its pages? The are:

Lisa Alvarado
Oscar Bermeo
Xochiquetzal Candelaria
Diana Marie Delgado
Jose B. Gonzalez
Octavio R. Gonzalez
Raina J. León
elena minor
John Murillo
Kristin Naca
Emily Pérez
Ruben Quesada
Peter Ramos
Carmen Gimenez Smith
Rich Villar

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A word of thanks to the poets: a pleasure working with all of you.